Sertraline and any other ADs support thread

[hathorinareddress]

Following on from a suggestion by LittleWhiteMice on a thread I have going on here, I am starting a support thread for anyone taking Sertraline or any other AD.

I started taking it yesterday after eventually plucking up the courage to go to the doc on Thursday.

I feel a bit weird but not too bad.

I've just seen a pscychiatric nurse who said sertraline is the ssri of choice for pregnancy and breastfeeding because it is at undetectable levels in breastmilk.

she said persistent pulmonary hypertension (or something) in newborns whose mothers have taken ssris are the main concern with ssris but the risk is low and neither she nor any of the doctors at the hospital had ever seen this.

which is very interesting.

she said my tryciclic nibbling was like a homeopathic remedy. i'm going to stick with it and go on sertraline if i get as far as breastfeeding, touch wood.

thought i'd share - might be helpful.

Um. Hullo...

So, I was on this thread a while back, but haven't been lately. Been on Sertraline for about three months now (I think?!). Does anyone else get crazy vivid dreams?

I dreamed, two nights ago, that I had cancer- that it was terminal, and that I had two days to live. Haven't been able to really shake the feeling. Even asked my partner to check our insurance today, just in case.

Not feeling too bad otherwise, just haunted by nutso dreams, mainly.

hi meh - i've had dreams like that! well at least one that i remember distinctly. that i had terminal cancer. and i wondered if it was true. but i've also noticed dreams that predict the absolute opposite of what is true - that a job is going great and i'm about to be promoted when it isn't and i'm not for example. let's not dwell on that! but it does show how dreams are not psychic.

sertraline - i wish i could have some. i wish i could ssri myself up to the eyeballs. i think the amitriptilyin nibbling is going to have to end - it just makes me too tired.

i am def going to go on sertraline if i actually get as far as having a baby (8+3 today so not a done deal). i'm going to knock it back.

xxx

oh yes and it wasn't true that i had cancer. this was at least 5 years ago.

Hello Meh - and all. I was on here a little while ago also. No vivid dreams to share I'm afraid. I can barely remember what I dream about.
I've been increased to 225 Ven (is there anyone else taking or has taken Venlafaxine on here?). First 5 days seemed a real improvement. Still anxiety but it seemed reduced. And had a little more energy. (I've been totally gobsmacked at how debilitating depression/anxiety is. Days have gone by when i've literally struggled to get out of bed in the morning and not lay on the sofa for the whole day.) but then day 6 (today) i've been shattered again and anxiety has come back to bite. hoping this is early days for this dose as psych says it's the highest he will prescribe and if it doesn't work he'll look to switch meds. hated switch from mirtazapine (which didn't do it for me at all) to ven so would dearly love this one to work. i read other people's posts that say "the drugs really worked for me" and am green with envy!
Hope you've all had an ok weekend.

I have been switched to setraline. can you guys tell me what time of day you take it? I am sooooo tired but am confused as to what is side effect and what is depression. And what is hayfever tablet side effect etc Would very much like to feel better now.... Hope you are all ok. This really sucks.

Poor you, shrinking! I take mine in the morning- I seem to remember us discussing this near the beginning of the thread (back when I had just started taking it) and it seemed like that was what worked for most people.

It's hard to tell about side effects. I found I yawned a LOT early on. Still find I hit a yawning jag/crash point around 5pm most days.

No more really horrific dreams since the cancer one, but they're still pretty vivid. They always were- but they just seem that bit more complex/real now! Speaking of which, I'm bloody knackered... stuff to do before crashing though. Isn't there always?

Adios, compadres...

I take it in a morning. I find if I forget and take it any later my appetite is zero, although it's not been good for a long time anyway. If I take it before bed I'm too awake and find it even harder to sleep.

On a positive note I'm looking into going back to college and getting myself a career

hi. uptothestars that is GREAT!
Middy hi there. i've heard that about ssris - it wasn't true for me - i was so releived to get some distance from my raging emotions.
hope you feel better soon.
serial there are lots of different drugs - have you tired everything?

i am feeling sick sick sick.

ps meh glad your dreams are better.

talking of dreams i had a dream last night that i had a party and some wierd drug got out and all my guests turned into strange, murderous semi-zombies. i had to kill them one by one! this is i think a metaphor for my brain without drugs.

xxx

Hi all. uptothestars - that is such a positive move. well done to you.

somewhere - only mirtazapine before. at 15 & 30 it had little effect. then at 45 i was completely zonked so came off it quite quickly (guess about 2-3 weeks). now thinking that could have been start up side effects and they might have passed. now i am constantly dog-tired AGAIN (to the point of being unable to get off sofa) hoping this really IS a start-up side effect and will wear off. also lots of nausea.
shrinking - i completely second that this illness really sucks. the only thing that keeps me going is the number of mumsnetters who say their lives have been transformed once they find the right drug. i still find it incomprehensible that it really seems a case of trying each one till something works. surely, me thinks, somewhere along the line the depressive episode should pass anyway??
worldofmeh - how are you doing?

Thanks guys. I think if I don't do it now then I never will. I'm 27, I'm not ever ever ever having any more kids and I'm stuck in a job that I just cannot stand anymore. I'm currently sat in the office doing 'paperwork'
Roll on half five!

somewhere sorry to hear you're feeling sick. One of the worst parts I think. Hope it passes for you soon.

Hi all have just caught up.

somewhere I'm breast feeding and on 50mg sertraline - baby has been fine.

Whoops pressed post too soon.

I'm on my second month of sertraline and I have to say I'm doing really well. I feel like the old me, I have lots more energy and I'm enjoying life again.

I'm going back to work in six weeks and I feel really much more positive about it (having thought I couldn't so it when I was feeling really ill).

thanks uptothestars and hairytale.

hairytale, good to hear, it's negligeable in breastmilk isn't it. i'm lining myself up some sertraline for the minute the baby is born, if not the days before (touch wood that it gets that far as I'm 40 but it's looking positive). glad to hear its working for you - can't wait! did you quit meds during pregnancy?

uptothestars you are very clever getting your kids out of the way in your 20s! how old are they? the world is kind of your oyster - you don't have to worry about having kids. that worry took up so much of my 20s and 30s. although i know you have more responsibilities than i would have had, in another way maybe you have free headspace to think about getting your life how you want it?

xxx

Somewhere I'm 44 and DD is seven months :)

I quit ads - citalopram - in October 10 (as i was doing really well) and conceived DD in April 11.

somewhere dd1 is 5 (nearly 6 as I'm so often told!) and dd2 is 15 months. Big age gap but it's working now. For the first 4 and a half years, having just the one to deal with was easy. dd1 was an easy pregnancy, easy baby, easy toddler and is still easy now!

Things came crashing down when I had dd2, maybe during my pregnancy if I'm honest. The way I felt was completely heartbreaking, and even now, the hardest thing is the guilt of how I felt.
And that's what I can't let go of.

So the decision to not have any more is kind of made without me having to think about it. That and the fact that I'm now single and the thought of another relationship scares me to death!

So career wise, I think now is the perfect time to go for it and by the time dd2 is in full time school hopefully I'll be either qualified or on my way to it.
I'm even kind of looking forward to the hard work (I think) so I guess that's a good sign.

Ooh....essay

hi all i'm reading a really interesting book Pregnancy Blues by Shaila Md Kulkarni Misri

it's all about how some women are vulnerable to depression/disturbance in pg cause of the mix of hormones, neurotransmitters, stress, changing roles etc. She described me almost exactly in my first PG - how everything that made me me fell away before i even had the baby, and i just didn't know who i was, and felt really isolated.

apparently progesterone gobbles up serotonin. estrogen boosts it but if the balance is wrong...

she also quantifies this notion of the stress being worse for the baby than meds - but i haven't got to that bit yet.

anyway a bit late for you uptothestars. also not where you're at hairytale although she does talk about PND. BTW v impressed you quit your meds before becoming PG.

i have made a decision that i'll take meds in PG if i need them - and that decision has made me feel a bit better (the idea being i won't take them, of course).

xxx

I've just started taking sertraline, second pill today. I've been reading up on it and feel worried that it can take a while to kick in. I feel so anxious and panicky all the time and I'm just desperate for it to work and calm me down, I woke up six or seven times last night breathing really heavily and feeling panicked and afraid. I have to go back to my doctor next week so I might see if she can help with something in the meanwhile.

Hello The Birderer.
I've no experience of sertraline but I know I and a number of others have been offered something (either a benzo or an antipsychotic) to help whilst waiting for the ADs to kick in. Good luck and I hope you're feeling better soon.

TheBirderer - I am on my 8th day of sertraline today and can say i definitely felt a difference in about 4 or 5 days and it just keeps getting better every day. Hang in there.

Hello

I am on day 2 of sertraline and am so pleased to find you all.

Took me 1.5 hours with a new psychiatrist for him to give me sertraline as I have had pretty much every other AD going.

Feeling a bit foggy today. Decided to take it at night but don't know what is for the best. Prescription just said once daily. Finding it a bit of a struggle to see properly today but have had an endoscopy and an ultrasound today so am all over the place emotionally.

Just need it to help with some anxiety at the moment. Am not depressed, just a permanent heightened state of anxiety due to work stress.

Hope you don't mind me joining. The posts I read so far were really helpful.

Birderer I too got a positive effect after about a week or so.